1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a unified communication system, and in particular, to a system which can provide both wire and wireless unified in-building communication services, and method of providing both wire and wireless unified in-building communication services.
2. Related Art
The invention premises that a communication service area is limited to one building or a prescribed local area.
A wire in-building communication system can use a private branch exchange (PBX) or a keyphone system for a voice service, and can use a local area network (LAN) switch and a router, associated with a server, for a data service. In a wireless in-building communication technology, there can be introduced a cordless telephone-second generation (CT-2) technology and a European global system for mobile (GSM) communication technology.
Exemplars of recent efforts in the communications arts include U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,610 to Mauger et al., entitled MOBILE COMMUNICATION HAVING MOBILE SUBSCRIBERS, PCN NETWORK, PBX AND A LOCAL EXCHANGE, issued on Jul. 16, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,287 to Laborde, entitled INTEGRATED PERSONAL/CELLULAR COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE, issued on Apr. 12, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,029 to Smith et al., entitled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS TO A SUBSCRIBER OF A PRIVATE WIRELINE NETWORK, issued on Jun. 6, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,966 to Hanley, entitled WIRELESS ACCESS FOR LOCAL EXCHANGE CARRIERS, issued on Aug. 1, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,018 to Sallberg, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTERWORKING OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS WITH ISDN NETWORKS, issued on Jun. 6, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 5,506,887 to Emery et al., entitled PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE USING WIRELINE/WIRELESS INTEGRATION, issued on Apr. 9, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,296 to Schornack et al., entitled CONCURRENT WIRELESS/LANDLINE INTERFACE APPARATUS, issued on Feb. 3, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,681 to White et al., entitled WIRELESS IN-BUILDING TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM FOR VOICE AND DATA COMMUNICATIONS, issued on Dec. 12, 1995, U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,593 to Acampora, entitled HYBRID UNIVERSAL BROADBAND TELECOMMUNICATIONS USING SMALL RADIO CELLS INTERCONNECTED BY FREE-SPAZE OPTICAL LINKS, issued on Apr. 11, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,226 to Weis et al., entitled PRIVATE BRANCH EXCHANGE HAVING A CENTRAL CONTROL UNIT AND A MOBILE CONTROL UNIT SUBORDINATE THERETO, issued on Aug. 6, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,076 to Sakabe et al., entitled INTRA-PREMISES COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, issued on Feb. 24, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,699 to Lu et al., entitled CELLULAR PRIVATE BRANCH EXCHANGES, issued on Mar. 31, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,064 to Widergen et al., entitled MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK HAVING INTEGRATED WIRELESS OFFICE SYSTEM, issued on Mar. 30, 1999, U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,824 to Lu et al., entitled PRIVATE MULTIPLEXING CELLULAR NETWORK, issued on Oct. 6, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,651 to Lu et al., entitled CELLULAR ADJUNCT TO A PUBLIC WIRED NETWORK, issued on Sep. 14, 1999, U.S. Pat. No. 5,995,843 to Sjödin et al., entitled METHOD AND ARRANGEMENT FOR USING A MOBILE PHONE INA WIRELESS OFFICE NETWORK, issued on Nov. 30, 1999, U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,051 to Muppidi et al., entitled RADIO COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONNECTING AN INCOMING CALL TO A WIRELESS TELEPHONE, issued on Feb. 18, 1992, U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,033 to Hjern et al., entitled METHOD AND ARRANGEMENT FOR TRANSFER BETWEEN A CORDLESS TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND A CELLULAR MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM, issued on Feb. 16, 1999, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,931 to I'Anson et al., entitled BASE STATION FOR A TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM, issued on Apr. 27, 1999.
In particular, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,051 discloses a CT-2 phone, which is used as a cordless telephone at home and performs wireless communication for local and international calls through a CT-2 repeater without a handoff. A digital electronic cordless telephone (DECT) communication system, which is a European cordless telephone system, and a cellular GSM communication system, disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,898,931 and 5,873,033, are connected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and provide a communication service to a wireless terminal through a private automatic branch exchange (PABX). These systems are operated and controlled separately from the PABX for the wire in-building communication service and a wireless system for the wireless communication service on the wireless terminal.
Therefore, there has been a demand for a method and system enabling the unified communication service for the wire and wireless in-building data communication and the Internet communication.